When Bryson was born, he weighed 7lbs 10.8 oz. While were were in the hospital, his weight had dropped to 7lbs 1.7oz, which is pretty normal for a newborn. Since he had a little bit of jaundice, they suggested that we take him to get a weight check at one week instead of wait until the 2 week appointment, just to make sure he was gaining weight ok.

I had been stressing out about his weight from the second we got home from the hospital. I just wanted to make sure he was alright. He had also shortened his feeding times from a good 30-40 minutes to 10-20 minutes, which of course stressed me out even more thinking he wasn't getting enough food.

Normally, they want the baby's weight back up their birth weight by the 2 week appointment. So we went to the doctor yesterday for the one week weight check and amazingly enough, our little boy weighs 7lbs 15.5oz!! Michael and I were SO excited to hear that he had been gaining weight AND has already passed his birth weight!! Woohoo!!

We should have known that he would be fine because they say you can usually tell how much food they're getting by the amount of dirty diapers they make. And oh my goodness, this little boy is a pooping machine!! I told Michael that it is seriously a full time job changing this kid's diapers!! HA!

While we were at the doctor, I fed Bryson while the nurse was filling out all the paper work after he was weighed. Well, I went to give him back to her so she could put his clothes on. Look what Mr. B decided to do to Mommy...

Michael thought it was only fair that I got a piece of the action after Bryson pottied on in his mouth a few nights ago :)

Bryson also got to see snow again!! He's going to think that we live in Colorado or something. It's snowed or has had snow on the ground 5 out of the 9 days he's been alive! Lucky boy :)

I'm so anxious to see how much he's grown at his 2 week appointment on Tuesday!! :)

Sunday, December 27, 2009

I want to remember every detail about the best day of my life, so this will probably be a pretty long post :)

Sunday, December 20Michael and I spent most of the day hanging out at the house. I did a few last minute things at the house and made sure we had everything packed and ready for the hospital. We were supposed to check in at the hospital at 5:30 Sunday night and we only live 4 minutes from the hospital. But I was SO anxious to get there and to get things going, I was up and ready to at 4:30!! We left the house at 5:00 to go get Sonic for dinner. I realized I forgot my license and credit card at home because I had just switched purses, so we had to make a quick stop back home. Then we were on our way to the hospital!!

We got there, checked in, they asked about a gazillion questions and then started my IV. I was SO excited and SO nervous, I couldn't stop shaking. The nurse put the Cervadil in at 6:30 and warned me that I may feel "period-like cramps" and said that if it starts hurting too much I could get some pain medicine in my IV or I could take an Ambien to help me sleep. My family came up to see us for a while and brought a cute little snowman for my room so it would like Christmas!! :) When they left, Michael and I sat and talked about what it was going to be like to see our son for the first time and imagined what he would look like.

I started to feel those "period-like cramps" so to try to relax we started watching Ratatouille. About 30 minutes into the movie, I was feeling WAAY more than "period-like cramps", but didn't want to say anything about how much it hurt because, shoot, I should be able to handle cramps, right!? We turned the movie off at 10:30, hoping to get a few hours of good sleep and hoping that the pain would go away if I fell asleep. But it didn't. At all. It got so much worse. I kept flipping from side to side hoping I could find relief. Didn't help. So I finally bit the bullet and got the pain medicine around 11:30. It worked SO well...for about 30 minutes. The nurse said she could give me a stronger dose in 30 minutes. Longest 30 minutes ever! The nurses kept coming in the room throughout the night to readjust the montors on my belly because they would move when I flipped around. The pain medicine helped SOO much and I got it pretty much every hour. It also made me super sleepy, soit was nice to be forced to sleep instead of stay awake and be nervous! I got the last dose a little before 3:00 A.M.

Monday, December 21

Then, at 3:15AM, My water broke!!! On it's own!!! I didn't have to be induced at all! If you remember, I was told that I would have to be induced, my doctor would break my water and give me Pitocin Monday morning. I wanted Bryson to come on his own, so this was such an answer to prayer!! It was the craziest feeling. I was still pretty out of it since I just got the pain medicine a few minutes earlier. I hit the "Nurse" button on my bed and told her my water broke. That woke Michael up real quick and we were both so excited! I kept dosing off every few minutes. I tried really hard to stay awake, but that crazy medicine just wouldn't let me! The medicine was no longer strong enough to cover the pain, so I got the Epidural at 4:00 A.M. Apparently, I had been having contractions all night, NOT "period-like cramps," but since I was moving around so much, the monitor wasn't picking up the full contraction. Lovely! But anway, the Epidural was amazing! It didn't hurt at all. Michael watched the doctor put it in and was warned that it has a huge faint factor, but it didn't phase him at all. What a tough guy! :)

Shortly after I got the Epidural, my nurse was in the room every few minutes trying to readjust the monitor that was picking up Bryson's heart rate. I could tell something was wrong, but she wouldn't say anything. Finally, she said his heartrate had dropped into the 80's (It's supposed to be between 120-150) I was terrified. I was so scared something was happening to my little boy and I couldn't do anything about it. It would go back up into the normal range and then drop shortly after. They gave me oxygen hoping it would help. At one point, one of the nurses ran in, turned all the lights on in the room, ran over and grabbed the sheets on the bed so quickly that it rolled me over onto my other side. I was becomming more and more upset and scared by the second. I thought that maybe it had to something to do with the epidural since it only started dropping after I got it, so I told the nurses to please take it out to see if it would change anything. She assured me it wasn't because of that, so I left it in. At 6:30, the nurse checked me and I was fully dialated, 100% effaced and she said that Bryson's head was really low. At 7:00, she suggested that I do a couple practice pushes. So I did. After one push she told me to stop and not to do anything else until my Doctor got there because she could see Bryson's head! Michael and I had to call our families and tell them that Bryson was going to be here mch sooner than expected and to get to the hospital as soon as possible. The nurse called my doctor and we waited patiently impatiently for him to get there! Dr. Shimer walked in at 7:45, got prepped ad ready and I started pushing at 8:01. I pushed for a total of 8 minutes, through 3 contractions and we got to see our beautiful baby boy at 8:09AM!!

It was the most amazing feeling in the world, holding our son and watching Michael with him. Oh my gosh, it melts my heart all over again just thinking about it. He is the most perfect thing I have ever seen and I still just stare at him constantly thinking how blessed we are to have him!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

I had good intentions on blogging about this earlier, but, oh my goodness, we've been so busy!

John Bryson Fantis finally here!!!

He was born Monday, December 21, 2009 at 8:09 AM

He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and is 20 1/2 inches long

He is the most perfectly beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life and my heart is bursting at the seems with love for this little boy!! Michael and I still can't believe he is actually ours! We find ourselves just staring at him constantly, amazed by our baby boy!! I can't even begin to put into words how much we absolutely love and adore this baby! (He's sleeping in my arms as I type this one handed becasue I just can't seem to put him down!)

Some pictures of our precious little miracle

The proud Daddy!

Our first family picture :)

The Braggs

The Fants

Memony

Papa John

Mimi

Pawpaw

Aunt Jenny & Aunt Stephy

UncleBen & Aunt Reb

We are so blessed that all of our family could be with us on such an amazing day! I've said it before, and I'll say it a thousand times. We have THE best families and have been so blessed by them. Bryson is one lucky little boy that gets to be a part of both of them!!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Tomorrow is the big day, guys! I can't believe it's already here. Yet, at the same time, I'm so glad it's finally here!!

Michael and I get to meet out baby boy tomorow!

We have been praying for this miracle for so long!! I have been at home all morning praying, crying, rejoicing, crying some more, and praising God for forming this perfect person inside of me for the past 9 months. Pregnancy is just one giant miracle and I thank the Lord for allowing this miracle to happen to me. Thank you, Lord, for allowing Michael and I to be Bryson's parents and giving us the huge responsibility of raising him to be a man after Your own heart and to chase after Your word every day of his life.

Some days, I had become so overwhelmed with this responsibility that I asked Michael how we could ever show and teach Bryson everything he would possibly need to know. Michael told me exactly the thing I needed hear (as always) to let me know that everything is going to be ok and that we'll be able to do it. Both of our parents are wonderful God-fearing Christians that we both respect and look up to in every way possible. They taught us and we will teach Bryson. I don't know where we would be without our parents. We are blessed beyond measure by our families. Thank you for showing us Christ's love so that we can show Bryson. We love you SO SO much!

So, Michael and I will be going to the hospital in approximately 3 1/2 hours. (AHH!) Longest 3 1/2 hours of my life, I'm sure! Check back soon for updates/ pictures of our little miracle!!! :)

I am SOOO pleased to announce that Michael is finshed with his Masters!! He's been working so hard for the past 2 years and is finally finished :) I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of him!! I also can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to be able to have him home with us instead of down on campus 2-3 nights a week!

The graduate!

It was REALLY sunny outside

Michael's parent's threw him a really sweet graduation party that night